Tuesday's news in under 5 minutes

We’ve rounded up all the latest stories from Australia and around the world – so you don’t have to go searching.

 1. Child dead after another asylum seeker ship sinks off Greek Island.

At least three people, including a child, have died after a boat carrying more than 80 asylum seekers sank off the Greek island of Rhodes.

It comes as the first of the bodies of what is suspected to be up to 900 people are brought ashore after a boat capsized off Libya on Sunday.

The Greek coast guard said the latest disaster occurred when a wooden sailboat carrying dozens of migrants ran aground off the coast of the Greek island of Rhodes.

More than 90 people were rescued and 30 of those taken to hospital. The boat was totally wrecked, the coast guard said.

The EU has set out a 10-point package of measures to try to ease the crisis in the Mediterranean.

The BBC reports that Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said the 10-point package was a “strong reaction from the EU to the tragedies” and “shows a new sense of urgency and political will”.

“We are developing a truly European sense of solidarity in fighting human trafficking – finally so.”

 2. East Coast low pummels Sydney and the Hunter/ Newcastle regions.

An East Coast low has hit the Sydney and Hunter regions and will continue battering the coastline during the day.

In Sydney the system caused heavy rain and strong winds, which brought down trees and powerlines, cut power to 15,000 properties and caused major transport disruptions.

Ausgrid have said that by the morning the number of houses without power may rise by 100,000.

The NSW State Emergency Service has responded to more than 1400 requests on Monday.

“We’re not expecting conditions to ease until Wednesday,” SES spokeswoman Stephanie Wills told AAP.

Two people have gone missing in flood water in the Hunter region.

 3. 14-year old British boy arrested over Anzac Day Terror plot.

A 14-year old boy from Northern England has been arrested in connection with the alleged Anzac Day terror plot in Melbourne.

Victoria Police have revealed that British police arrested the teenager in Blackburn, in Lancashire, on  Saturday, the same day five men were arrested in raids in Victoria.

“Investigators received information from UK authorities after they allegedly uncovered communications between the teenager and a man in Australia,” Victoria Police said.

“The nature of the communication will form part of the investigation and therefore it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

Police in the UK have confirmed that the UK counter-terrorism unit found evidence of communication between the boy and an Australian man of “what we believe is a credible terrorist threat”.

“The minute we found it we were onto the Australians,” Superintendent Mole told a press conference overnight.

He said it was this information that led police to the arrests in Melbourne.

Superintendent Mole said he believed the boy was the youngest person ever arrested in Britain on suspicion of such a crime.

Sevdet Besim, 18, of Hallam, has been charged with conspiring to commit a terrorist act and police yesterday confirmed a second man has been charged with weapons offences.

Another man is being held under a Preventative Detention Order (PDO) which allows him to be held for 14 days.

4. Unprecedented levels of security for Melbourne’s dawn service.

The alleged terror plot has meant that there will be unprecedented levels of security in place at Melbourne’s Anzac Day dawn service and events across Australia.

Acting Police Commissioner Tim Cartwright said Melbourne’s dawn service will be a key focus for officers.

“We will see several hundred police present, we will see physical security arrangements in place which we won’t have seen before,” he said.

“There are other arrangements which will not be visible.

“We are not restricting ourselves to the dawn service nor just to Melbourne and the Anzac Day events on that day.

“We are looking right across Victoria for the events that relate to Anzac Day.”

5. Trial of Nanny funding pilot program approved.

The Australian Nanny Association has welcomed a pilot program announced by the Government which will allow funding for nannies to be available to families in remote areas and on shift work.

The trial program is more modest than recommended by the Productivity Commission .

Fairfax Media reports that Social Services Minister Scott Morrison does not want to make nannies a “mainstream alternative” to long and family day-care services.

The Australian Nanny Association spokeswoman Annemarie Sansom said

“We also agree that nannies will not be an alternative to existing childcare services, but complement them by providing flexible childcare for those families whose childcare needs are not currently being met within the existing formal childcare sector.”

6. Australian woman claims she was raped twice in Bali.

An Australian women 19-year old Audrey Pekin has told the Nine Network that she was raped twice while in Bali on Christmas Eve and that her attacker is still at large.

Ms Pekin told the story of how she was attacked by a man named Henry, once in a villa and then again in a taxi.

“I was raped and assaulted and the Australian government has done nothing about it,”

“Shame won’t do anything for me, shame won’t get him arrested. Anger and persistence will.”

For more read this post here. 

7. Childcare fees predicted to go up.

Meanwhile The Courier Mail reports that childcare fees are predicted to rise by $10 a day from the beginning of next year.

The Australian Childcare Alliance has warned that with the start of the National Quality Framework  fees will rise as childcare centres in NSW, South Australia, Queensland and Victoria are forced to meet higher staff to children ratios.

Australian Childcare Alliance president Gwynn Bridge said, “The Australian Childcare Alliance has repeatedly asked that this implementation of the ratio change be delayed until the government can afford to pay for it, not families, because we know families are already struggling,”

“If the families package is going to take time to implement, we need to see a substantial increase in childcare benefits in the short term to ensure families aren’t further penalized.”

 8. Childcare good for kids education, not so good for emotional health.

A study by the Queensland University of Technology research has found that children in centre-based care academically outperformed those in home care at four to five years old.

But by the ages of six to seven years they may potentially suffer increased emotional and behavioural problems and poor health.

QUT Faculty of Education researcher Dr Chrystal Whiteford told The Brisbane Times that kids who had been in “high-dose” child care, more than 20 hours a week, had the potential for increased behavioural problems and poor health.

She said, “It’s essential that we don’t just take these findings and suggest centre-based care to be a problem,”

“Child and family characteristics play a large role in a child’s developmental outcomes, above that of their early child care experiences.

 9. More than 1 million Australians live in poverty.

A report by the the Committee for Economic Development of Australia has found that between 4 and 6 per cent of the population- which means between 1 and 1.5 million –  is classed as being in poverty, “with little to no hope of getting out of that situation”.

The report, Addressing Entrenched Disadvantage in Australia, found that those who have a high risk of falling into long-term poverty include people who do not finish high school, Indigenous Australians, those over 65, those with a long-term health problem or disability and those who live in a jobless household.

 10. WA looking at new careless driving laws.

The Western Australian government are looking at bringing in new careless driving laws which could see anyone who caused a fatal accident while distracted sent to jail.

The laws are one step up from the reckless driving and dangerous driving laws under the Road Safety Act.

The State Government wants to create a new offence of careless driving occasioning death, grievous bodily harm or bodily harm – this could be from changing the radio, applying make-up, drinking coffee or turning around to stop children fighting in the backseat.

Road Safety Minister Liza Harvey said distracted drivers were extremely dangerous.

“Distraction on our roads kills people,” she told the ABC.

“When you’re driving and you’re not paying attention, that’s when people run into cyclists, that’s when they go up a kerb and they might hit a pedestrian.

“So this is [about] having drivers focus on driving when they’re in a motor vehicle, paying attention and not being distracted.

“This is not a mandatory penalty regime, it’s just a new [maximum] penalty.

“We haven’t settled on what that might be yet, but we’ll leave it up to the courts’ discretion to determine what level of culpability those drivers have.”

But Perth barrister Linda Black from the WA Bar Association said the proposed new laws could see otherwise good drivers severely punished.

“Momentary inattention is a part of life – it happens on the road, it happens in a cafe when we spill our coffee on someone,” she said.

“The thought that you could go to jail for momentary inattention is frightening.

11. Pakistani woman burned alive for leaving home without permission.

A Pakistani woman has been burnt alive by her husband and his father because she left home without permission.

The horrific attack is the latest example of the country’s “honor killings.”

Muhammad Siddique was arrested for immolating his wife Shabana Bibi, 25 after she went to visit her sister on Friday without asking him, police said.

Siddique and his father then doused her with gasoline and set her on fire. Suffering burns to 80 per cent of her body, Bibi died of her injuries in hospital on Saturday.

“We have arrested the husband and father-in-law of the deceased woman and charged them for murder and terrorism,” district police chief Rai Zameer-ul-Haq told AFP.

The Aurat Foundation says more than 3,000 women have been murdered as a result of such attacks by family members since 2008.

12. Will it be James or Alice?

With a second royal baby due any day now bookies have a new favourite baby name firming up with bookings seeing the name James firming up as a favourite.

The Huffington Post reports that the odds have been slashed from 14/1 to 8/1 at William Hill. A spokesman saying  “We have seen a surge of support for the name James today with a couple of significant wagers – perhaps the baby might just be a boy after all.”

James the name of Kate’s brother and was the also the name of two English and six Scottish Kings.

13. More than one million Australians living in poverty.

New research has found more than one million Australians are living in poverty, despite two decades of economic growth.

The Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) has found between 4 and 6 per cent of the population – between 1 and 1.5 million –  is classed as being in poverty, “with little to no hope of getting out of that situation”.

Those who have a high risk of falling into long-term poverty include people who do not finish high school, Indigenous Australians, those over 65, those with a long-term health problem or disability and those who live in a jobless household, The Age reports.

The report, titled Addressing Entrenched Disadvantage in Australia, uses two methods to define poverty. One looks at whether households have access to necessary goods and services, such as a substantial meal at least once a day, access to medical treatment if needed and a separate bed for each child. The second method considers social exclusion across seven areas, including employment, material resources and health.

Watch today’s news in 90 seconds: 

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